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Was just looking at this, and decided to check up how fast my typing speed was. 68wpm. I'm a self taught touch typist, that is, I was a hunt and pecker up until I just a few years ago (a very fast hunt and pecker, mind you) and decided to just put my fingers on the keys where they "should" be, and I was able to transition to touch typing very quickly.

68wpm is still pretty mediocre though. Just looked at the Typing Racer game linked in that article, and just saw some guy score 211 wpm. Holy crap.

What kind of typing speeds can you guys muster? And what training have you undergone, if any? Anyone use Dvorak or other keyboard layouts? Type with one hand or two? Prefer laptop jeyboards to desktop?

Edited November 18, 2008 by Kung Fu Hung-Su

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I find my typing speed depends, to an extent, on the tactile and audio feedback. I like a clicky keyboard :). I don't think I'm a touch typer in the traditional sense. Though I never look at the keyboard I don't keep my hands in the appropriate position and use the recommended fingers for the recommended keys, as taught in my grade 8 keyboard skills subject. I got a VHA in that, topping the class. Suprised the heck out of the teacher because prior to my geeky self, it was always females that excelled at typing.

Last I looked, which was grade 8 typing circa 1989, I typed at around 65-70 wpm. I've probably sped up since then, but then, the old athritis might be slowing me down now :p I remember sitting in the labs at uni typing out code and a fellow student leans across from directly oppoiste me and asks "WTF. are you just bashing keys or something." astounded the speed of the noise I generated actually resulted in proper words and command being entered into the computer.

Typing speed is not that important though. As developers we spend 99.5% of our time thinking about code , rather than typing it into a machine. A hundred lines in an 8 hour day wouldn't be unacceptably low amount.

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I find my typing speed depends, to an extent, on the tactile and audio feedback. I like a clicky keyboard :).

This is something I'll have to try out. I'm a very quiet typer.

I don't think I'm a touch typer in the traditional sense. Though I never look at the keyboard I don't keep my hands in the appropriate position and use the recommended fingers for the recommended keys, as taught in my grade 8 keyboard skills subject. I got a VHA in that, topping the class. Suprised the heck out of the teacher because prior to my geeky self, it was always females that excelled at typing.

Really? That's unreal...it was us geeks topping the typing games we had to play in grade 8, but that's also some 11 years later in 2000 =]

Typing speed is not that important though. As developers we spend 99.5% of our time thinking about code , rather than typing it into a machine. A hundred lines in an 8 hour day wouldn't be unacceptably low amount.

I agree completely. =] Might talk more on that in another topic though xD
Edited November 18, 2008 by Kung Fu Hung-Su

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I can touch type very slowly (about 15 wpm), my hunting and pecking is much faster (40-60wpm).

I still glance at the keyboard form time to time, I suck at transcribing because of it, and because it's not the way I'm used to working of thinking-->typing - hence the variation between about 40 (transcribing) and 60+ wpm (thinking)

I used to try and go for the touch typing technique, but l always got pissed off with the slow progress while learning, and found that my hands got sore given code's excessive use of punctuation etc.

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My computer reports that on average (over the 6 months or so that I've been at this job) I type at 95wpm. Last time I was tested I typed at an error-adjusted 90wpm.

I've always preferred a clicky keyboard with a bit of travel - feels more like you're doing something. Having said that, I think I'm faster on a lower-travel, softer keyboard even though my hands are sorer after extended typing sessions.

I went to a week-long touch-typing workshop around Year 9 or 10. By the end I was certain that I would just go back to hunt+pecking but as it turns out I'm using those skills to this day. Has been a life-saver and is very cool to be able to type without looking at the screen or hands.

EDIT: my little finger is always hovering close to the Backspace (Delete on a Mac) key. I make plenty of errors!

I'd like to learn DVORAK, and I've been practicing my numbers and characters. I already know a few but I want to get 'em all, especially the rarely-used ones in the middle.

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Did typing at school, and while my technique might not be perfect, I do alright. I use backspace a lot, but instinctly when I know I've hit the wrong button.

From the test linked on that article I got 63 WPM with 100% accuracy, but only because of th eability to hit backspace. I never understood tests that wouldn't let you backspace, because without that ability I stumble, and pause while I gather where I should be.

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76WPM with 2 mistakes. I do in the 80's on a good day and when I don't have to deal with foreign place names :P I find that's a bit slow though, I'd like to improve on it.

I did a touch typing elective in year 10 but then a big Maori kid broke my wrist in PE just right after we'd learned all the letter key positions (before the accuracy/speed training) and I never bothered to train my self properly since. Although been thinking about it lately. Found a fairly decent open source program called Klavaro (available on Linux and Windows, which is handy cause I promised a friend I'd find something).

I stick to the traditional home key positions etc, although I find the American system of reaching for the number keys on the same diagonal as the letters is insanely uncomfortable. I ended up altering the number key fingers to maximise comfort, as it turned out what I ended up with wasn't too far off from the system they teach in a lot of European countries (see the diagram on this page for what I mean: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisanie_bezwzrokowe ).

Anyway, if I was ever going to switch layouts I'm not sure if Dvorak is the way to go. I think the Colemak layout looks better, both because it's got an even lower average finger movement distance (surprisingly also for Polish as well as English) and because it's a lot more similar to QWERTY (in particular it preserves the location of a lot of common windows shortcuts: ctrl+c, ctrl+x, ctrl+v, ctrl+a, ctrl+z). The only thing I'm not sure about is the total removal of the Caps Lock, but then given the frequency of use it's probably better mapped as some sort of AltGr combo anyway.

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I got 64WPM, 100% accuracy, Dvorak. I don't think of myself as a quick typer, but I don't think I'm slow.

I switched to Dvorak about 12 or 16 months ago. I now can't type qwerty, but for the times I have to use someone else's computer, it only takes 30 seconds to switch layouts on Windows or Mac, so I don't find it inconvenient. The only downside of not being able to type qwerty is that my geekpoints are -- on other people's keyboards until I add Dvorak layout.

I didn't replace keys on my keyboard; I'm using an Apple Aluminium bluetooth keyboard with the standard US qwerty layout. Instead, I learnt by setting my wallpaper to a tiled image of the dvorak layout, as well as having a printout next to me when I was using a fullscreen application.

I don't miss qwerty at all, however I think it's a myth that Dvorak is faster. It does feel more comfortable though.

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I too have been using computers since I was 4 (28 years ago (Sinclair ZX81, typing on those were remarkably annoying, they made the ZX Spectrum's rubber keyboard seem ergonomic)), and was never formally trained/taught how to type. I stopped looking at the keyboard when I was around 9 years old, and coincidentally took a high school typing class for easy credit at around age 15. However, I was too impatient to slow myself down to get into the habit of using the "proper" touch typing method, so never really learned it. I type with only 6 fingers for A-Z, use my left thumb for space and use my "pinkies" only for shift, control, alt, etc.

As for speed: I typically score 80-100 wpm on typing tests. The highest I've ever scored in a five minute test is 120 wpm, but I believe I can type considerably faster if making up the text as I go along rather than copying from an unfamiliar source. Since I timestamp IRC, I've observed that I've responded to lines on IRC at over 160 wpm at times.

Accuracy is usually 100%, since I do not believe it's fair to consider it a mistake if you have to backspace, as long as you actually correct it. If I'm copying something I will only look at what I'm copying and rely on tactile feedback to detect mistakes. If I'm typing something from my brain I'll just look at the text as I go. Correction with backspace will affect the typing speed so it is fair and practical. However, I'd say I need to backspace to correct a typo about once every 10 words on average if I'm typing as fast as I can.

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...I'm still waiting for the programming relevant portion of a thread that could otherwise have been in General :p

Well, the original post quoted this url http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001188.html. It argues that fast typing is of critical importance to programming. I disagree even though I can type fast. People spend way more time thinking than typing when programming, so it doesn't become a major issue. If anything, slow typing is an advantage because it means you're more likely to think before you type.